John wells



J. WELLS.

GAS PRODUCER. APPLICATION FILED NOV- I, 1919.

Patented July 19, 1921.

lrwmfaz' 270/222 Wlix' v m. w e llormyst UNITED STATES JOHN WELLS, OF CAIRO, EGYPT.

GAS-PRODUCER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 19, 1921.

Application filed November 1, 1919. Serial No. 335,078.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN WELLS, a subject of the King of Great Britain, of 36 Sharia Falaki, in the city of Cairo, Egypt, have invented new and useful Improvements in Gas-Producers, of which the following is a specification.

' One of the fundamental difliculties or troubles arising in the utilization of waste vegetable matter as fuel in gas producers is that of feeding material of such bulky nature to the producer at short intervals.

In my improved method hereinafter described, the ltbor attendant on the feeding of the producer is reduced by the filling of a special hopper at long intervals as compared with that necessary in feeding a producer for vegetable matter by means of the ordinary forms of hopper.

In the accompanying drawing, which shows a vertical section of a producer constructed according to this invention, A is a producer body built of plates of cast or wrought iron, and fitted with an inclined step grate B with an ash discharge into a water seal C, so arranged that from a poke hole D or from. a fire door E there is a clear way for pushing clinker from the front or face of the grate B downward into the ash pit C.

The walls of the producer body A are extended upwardly to provide a hopper G and in the head of the producer body A is a cone or bell H. attached to a plate F which covers in the body of the producer A and effectively separates it from the ho per Gr. The bell or cone H enters the b0 y A for a convenient distance and forms a gas chamber I above the fuel J. The hopper G is closed by a cover plate K, on which are mounted a feed door L and a spherical socket M movably supporting a ball M through which passes a feed rod N.

To prevent the escape of gas through the ball, the hole through which the rod N passes is packed with suitable packing to form a gas-tight joint. The feed rod N is suitably Weighted and its top end is fitted with a swivel 0 attached to a chain P, which passes over pulleys Q Q and carries a balance weight R. The chain carrying the balance weight may be attached to a mechanical arrangement operated by an engine shaft or other means through adjustable ratchet or like gear in such a manner as to give a periodic movement to the feed rod T mechanically, thus reducing manual labor.

The said gear may be adjustable to impart any desired number of movements to the rod in a given time. At the lower end of the feed rod N a series of teeth or projections S is attached, arranged to form a helix.

To put the producer into operation a layer of fuel is placed on the grate and then lighted, after which the producer is gradually filled up to the bell H. Thereafter the hopper G is filled to its limit, and the producer is now ready for the production of gas. As the mass of fuel sinks within the producer, an attendant, by actuating the feed rod N, is enabled to force the fuel in the hopper G to pass through the bell H into the combustion space. It may be noted that the rod N on being lifted engages the fuel in the hopper by means of the teeth S and as the rod sinks these teeth force the fuel down with it.

In the event of a hang up in the hopper, which sometimes occurs with some classes of fuel, the attendant, by means of the rod N, is able to stir up and loosen the fuel in the hopper G and may exert a pressure by pounding-that is to say, lifting the rod N up and down, or by means of tiller rods T may turn the rod N, thus utilizing the helically arranged teeth S to force the fuel downward.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is A gas producer having an upper fuel compartment and a lower gas producer chamber, a transverse plate separating the fuel. compartment from the producer chamher and formed with an. opening, a slide for opening and closing said opening, a bell or cone beneath said opening, a feed rod with helically arranged teeth and means for raising and lowering said rod to feed fuel through said opening OHN WELLS. 

